A friend of mine on facebook said she wanted a puppy... Well some kid (19 yo) said to her, "I have 9 for sale. They're only 3 weeks now but will be ready in 5." So of course I retort with smiley faces and suggesting rescue. Then I obviously had to check out this kid... and lo and behold. Two pit bulls. (GO FIGURE)Anyway, as I creeped through his pictures I found one of both dogs and this exchange actually happened between him and a friend of his:

Friend of kid: what 2 breeds do you have? The dogs dont look like the exact same breed?

Kid with puppies: theyre both pitbulls..icon the red male on the right is a different breed of pitbull though..he is a lot bigger breed, while malibu on the left is just a normal pitbull

I REALLY ... REEAAAAALLLYYYYY wish I was friends with him so I could comment. I so very badly want to say to him, "So what breed is Icon...as opposed to regular? " I thought about messaging him, but I think it would be a little tacky of me to do so, since we don't know each other.

Thank goodness he bred them! I mean... now he will have MEDIUM sized, rare crosses of 'normal' and 'bigger breed' pit bulls.

UGH.

end rant.

~Brittany, Degan and Harlow's mom

"It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."

Hey Landon! i was just looking through your pictures of your dogs and I was curious...on one picture you said your male was a different breed of pit bull than your female. What breeds exactly are you saying the two are? I'm not at all trying to be rude, or cross any boundaries. I am just a pit bull lover, and advocate. I just wanted to say that a pit bull is a pit bull and there aren't different 'breeds'. Sure 'pit bull breed' dogs include American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffies, Bull Terriers, and many others according to BSL, but they are all recognized as different breeds... It's my mission in life to change the reputation these dogs have, and lower the over population problem. And as much as I hate to do it...it messaging a stranger on facebook is a part of that, then it's a part of that. Only one in 600 pit bulls find forever homes. Breeders have all the best intentions in the world, but that's just the facts.

I'm a member of a couple of pit bull forums... and I know you have a new baby and everything, but I would love for you to join them. They are _________ and pitbulltalk.com. They are GREAT sources of information, education, and also a great place to just freakin' fit in because so many people in the world are against our dogs.

Anyway, I hope you don't take this in a foul manner. I really just hope to push you to reflect on breeding, and what little good it actually does for our breed. Regardless of whether we support breeding or not, we are all pit bull lovers and with so many people hating them nowadays we have to be on the same team and stand up to those assholes!=)feel free to reply if you want! I'm totally open to convo.(And seriously, join those forums. I promise you won't regret it!)

Then he said:

I'm not againt breedig at all. I didn't spend over 7000.00 on getting my dogs not to breed them. However I do agree that all these dumbasses that just breed to get an extra couple hundred dollars and don't do it for the bloodline should not be allowed to breed bc of how many dogs don't get homes

And:

And I wasn't meaning him as a different breed but his bloodline is different

I want to talk to him about health testing and everything but I just feel so... rude. If it were someone I knew or met it would be a totally different story, but I just hate to go out of my way to talk trash to some random person I found on facebook...

Maybe I will just give him the link to the BYB vs responsible breeder site and leave it at that?

~Brittany, Degan and Harlow's mom

"It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."

This might be really lame of me, but anytime someone starts talking like that- especially thinking they are a reputable breeder and not a backyard breeder when they obviously don't even have the terminology down, I literally just have to write them off and walk away. Judgmental? Yes. I just figure I will never change their minds. I may be a little bitter though, since I spent my high school years (and early college years) in a bitter war with my mother over her backyard breeding and how she thought everything she was doing was just fine.

I applaud anyone that can take a deep breath and manage to attempt to educate. In my experiences, people don't listen unless they WANT to learn. But I suppose you can always plant the seed. I don't know about you guys, but I wasn't naturally gifted with knowing what I know about backyard breeding and ethics. So I really really do applaud anyone who can attempt to educate someone that isn't listening- I'd like to believe that what you are doing will eventually help shape this person and change them. I wish I was capable of it without wanting to beat my head against a wall. I can talk all day to someone that wants to learn.

I think it's pretty synonymous with what I do at work. I am the aquatics specialist at my particular store for a nationwide pet retailer and I get people all the time that want me to sell them two or three goldfish for a bowl. If you know much about fish, then you know that this is a no no. This is LEARNED information, I've not met anyone that was born knowing this (obviously). I get that, I do not judge people for not knowing any better. I do however get frustrated when I attempt to educate them on WHY this is a bad idea and back it up with scientific information, only for them to blankly look at me and go, "I want one anyway, it's just a fish, I've kept them like this before." This frustrates me to no end. To not know is one thing, and I think acceptable. To stand there and stubbornly refuse to even attempt to open up to information is something totally different and not acceptable. I am not saying that everyone has to immediately agree with everything I say, I have been wrong before, but at least be open minded.

It's the same thing with pit bulls and backyard breeding in general for me. I used to think that breeding dogs in my backyard was perfectly acceptable. I grew up around it with my mother. It wasn't until I opened my mind to people much like everyone here and took in the information that I realized how harmful what she was doing was. It took my mother YEARS and years to realize that she wasn't doing her dogs any justice. She finally did, but she told me that it had nothing to do with what I told her. I wasn't right. She figured it out on her own. I just don't have the patience anymore to deal with people with these types of mindsets and I usually just don't bother trying unless it's someone that's open to discussion.

I seriously do applaud anyone that has the tenacity to plant those seeds.

I'm not againt breedig at all. I didn't spend over 7000.00 on getting my dogs not to breed them. However I do agree that all these dumbasses that just breed to get an extra couple hundred dollars and don't do it for the bloodline should not be allowed to breed bc of how many dogs don't get homes

And:

And I wasn't meaning him as a different breed but his bloodline is different

I want to talk to him about health testing and everything but I just feel so... rude. If it were someone I knew or met it would be a totally different story, but I just hate to go out of my way to talk trash to some random person I found on facebook...

Maybe I will just give him the link to the BYB vs responsible breeder site and leave it at that?

His statements are pretty contradictory. He wants to breed his dogs because he spent so much money on them...so for the money. And he thinks that producing an outcross litter is doing it for the bloodline?

Kristen, I pretty much agree with everything you said. That's why it was so hard for me to message him to begin with. I think him being 19 made me feel more confident about it because he's not some old guy who has been doing it for years, and thinks he knows absolutely everything. Those people I wouldn't mess with. But, it wasn't a horrible conversation. I send him the link to the BYB vs. Ethical breeder site, and thanked him for being mature when responding to me...I said, "Most people would have lashed out, and I appreciate that you didn't." I added him on facebook so maybe I will be able to get to him eventually. He really has no idea he's a BYB. I said, "I don't know what you and your dogs are involved with but this is a great site that opened my mind to a lot of things I didn't even know before." I doubt he read it, but maybe.

I agree with you too, furever_pit. He was being contradictory. I wish I could be more of an ass, haha. But I am SO non-confrontational that I wanted to keep it light. Plus I felt like that would be a better way of getting to him.

~Brittany, Degan and Harlow's mom

"It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."